ON LOVE; PART MCCLII
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GoodWill IS Love in Action
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FIRST IS THE GREAT COMMANDMENTS: “The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:29-31).
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WHAT THEN IS LOVE? In a general sense love is benevolence, good will; that disposition of heart which inclines men to think favorably of their fellow men, and to do them good. In a theological sense, it includes supreme love to God, and universal good will to men. While this IS from an older definition of Charity, which IS rendered in the King James Bible from the same Greek word agape which IS generally rendered as Love, we should amend our own definition here to include the idea that in the reality of Love a man will accord to ALL men ALL things that he would accord to himself and to say that Love IS our thoughts and attitude of the equality of ALL men regardless of their outward nature or appearance…that ALL ARE equally children of Our One God
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PLUS THE EVER IMPORTANT AND HIGH IDEAL TAUGHT TO US BY THE CHRIST: “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them” (Matthew 7:12).
We ended the last essay with some ideas regarding the True Life of a man….the Spirit manifest as the Soul. Our point here IS to show that the True man IS NOT his form in this world; this form IS but a temporary residence for the Soul as IS implied by several New Testament sayings. Such sayings, and others that go unnoticed, ARE offered from the ONLY perspective that the man in this world has….himself as a man in this world; we should try to see the need for the Master’s and His apostles’ words coming from this perspective as well as the reason that so much IS seemingly ambiguous. While this ambiguity should be mollified by the many straightforward sayings that ARE clear and concise, this has never been the case as men have chosen to ignore such ideas as the Great Commandments in favor of their own interpretations of the ambiguous.
While we can say that this IS human nature, the greater Truth IS that men ARE “made subject to vanity” (Romans 8:20) by their very presence here in form, a presence by which they ARE separated from the realization of their own spiritual reality by way of birth and then by the nurturing and the indoctrination that they must endure. It IS in this vanity that most ALL men live and it IS in this vanity ONLY that they can understand the deeper Truths that flow ONLY from within….flow ONLY from that unction by which “ye know all things” (1 John 2:20). This flow IS interrupted however by the wall of illusion and glamour which bind men to their own nurturing, indoctrination and experience; it IS these things that define one’s Life and here religion CAN NOT sufficiently tear down this wall as it too IS a part of the illusion.
Religion CAN however place man in a position where he will question his own reality according to the stark differences between secular and religious Life but, unfortunately, these two remain as the ONLY logical choices for most men whose lives approach this idea of questioning. Most ALL men will settle for that in which they find some comfort, be it secular Life or living according to the tenets of a particular religion, denomination, sect or even cult. This IS the most basic state of humanity, a state that IS brought on by the vanity of Life and exacerbated by one’s nurturing, indoctrination and experience; it IS ONLY when one’s experience becomes unsatisfactory that one begins to think about change. NOT merely changes in religion which can be brought about by many other carnal factors, but rather changes in one’s way of Life.
The choices however ARE few and while most ALL men seem to stay within the realm of ‘acceptable’ behavior according to their ideas of such and NOT to “kick against the pricks” (Acts 9:5) if we can use this idea here, there ARE ever additional choices. Such choices ARE offered by the Master’s words saying “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Luke 11:9, Matthew 7:7) and to DO so in sincerity, to look outside of one’s own indoctrinated view of Truth, IS to Truly “kick against the pricks” much as Paul IS encouraged to DO in his encounter with the Master. This brings us back to the Apostle James’ words on Wisdom as he tells us that “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him” (James 1:5) and here the search for Wisdom should be understood in terms of that sincerity and the dissatisfaction that propels one’s searching.
James goes on to tell us about the necessary sincerity as he says “But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways” (James 1:6-8). In this degree of sincerity we should try to see the equal degree propelling dissatisfaction and while the less sincere may simply choose another religious approach, the most sincere with choose the Truth which IS accessed in True Repentance. Can we see the point here? In any search for the Truth, for the True Wisdom and for the True sense of agape, there must be sincerity and we should understand here that this sincerity will come in one’s own dissatisfaction with the status quo which IS brought out by one’s glimpses of what IS that Truth as this IS prompted by the Soul, that unction by which “ye know all things“.
If we could see deeper into this idea, we could then see the basic reality of Jesus words and the clarifying and amplifying words of His apostles and this NOT ONLY in the words He gives us but, more importantly, their purpose. The singular purpose of most ALL of Jesus words IS to show us the Truth, the Truth of Love, the Truth of Repentance, the Truth of looking past the self, and so on. It IS in His showing us the Truth that His words strike at the conscience, that place where the Soul lurks in the consciousness of everyman; it IS from here that His words can amplify the prompting of one’s own Soul, a prompting that resides in this same sense of conscience. We should try to understand here that many men have cut off the conscience from their everyday sense of consciousness and for these the Soul’s prompting seldom has an effect but for others there IS yet a link through which IS filtered one’s thoughts and feelings about this and that.
This ‘filter’, for lack of a better idea to use here, can be of differing qualities much like the filters we use everyday. Some filter out ALL ‘bad’ things while other DO let some through; this can be analogous to the filter concept when applied to one’s conscience. And this can work in two ways; in one it can filter out the bad because the general state of consciousness of the man leans toward the Good, the Beautiful and the True while in the other, as a clogged filter, the conscience will NOT allow the good to pass through so that the consciousness IS seldom convicted by such thoughts and feelings.
It IS then the conscience that leads to one’s dissatisfaction but ONLY if it IS ‘allowed’ to clearly ‘feel’ the prompting of the Soul. We could say that the conscience IS the physical component of the Soul, the receptor if you will of the flow of Truth, Wisdom and Love. What IS it that can clog the conscience? Simply everything carnal, everything religious and everything social that IS the product of one’s nurturing, indoctrination and experience. What IS it then that can free the conscience? Simply the Truth that IS ‘allowed’ to penetrate the established blockage and here, depending upon the severity of one’s carnal, religious and social approach to Life, depends the ease of such freeing and to this we should add the idea of the spiritual collateral garnered in the Life of the Soul, a collateral which can predetermine one’s innate ability, as a Soul, to express His True nature through his form.
Spiritual collateral IS NOT however a a panacea, nor IS it a guarantee; in each and every Life in form the vanity must still be overcome. Spiritual collateral supplies ONLY the wherewithal for success; a success that must still be motivated but the flow of the spiritual Power of Truth, of Wisdom and of Love. If we could see the Master’s words and the amplifying and clarifying words of His apostles as providing some impetus to this motivation, we can then perhaps better understand the need to see the Truth in their words through the machinations of men which ARE their doctrines….which ARE ALL doctrines that work around the written Truths. We DO NOT use this idea of machinations to say that such IS with evil purpose which IS part of the modern definition; rather we use this idea to show the cleverly contrived ideas of men whose objective IS a sense of salvation without having to be “doers of the word“.
The Apostle James tells us to “be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22) and if we can see in this that this deception IS become that blockage of conscience which DOES NOT ‘allow’ the Truth to enter in, we can then see and better understand the human problem of religion as well as the idea of vanity, and the illusion and the glamour which ARE its manifestations. The flow of spiritual Power into the the conscience should be understood as a universal concept which IS beyond belief in any particular idea of God and while our view here IS NOT scriptural based nor scientific in nature, it IS a rather accurate picture of man and the Way that the prompting of the Soul, the impetus toward the Good, the Beautiful and the True, becomes bound to psyche of everyman.
That the man in this world, entombed in his own vanity, his own illusion and glamour, will clear his everyday consciousness to allow the conscience to reign IS another story and we should try to see here that this flow of Truth, Wisdom and Love into the heart of a man IS the Way to ever greater revelation and realization. Here then we come back to His words and the words of His apostles as the singular tool by which men can glimpse the Truth apart from their own nurturing, indoctrination and experience, which factors have heretofore blocked the flow of the Truth that IS encapsulated in His words which show us the Way, a Way that the human mind, through the heart, CAN NOT accept because it IS contrary to the very ways of men which His words seek to change. Few will willingly “kick against the pricks“.
When we consider that the greater blockage IS NOT found in the carnal ways of men which can more easily result in dissatisfaction but rather in their religious ways that they believe contain the Truth, we can then again see the Life of the Apostle Paul; we can see the lowest points of his search for Truth in the Jew’s religion and his finding that Truth in its absence. In the apostle’s Life we should be able to see a picture that IS carefully painted and one that shows the depth of vanity, of illusion and glamour. Paul paints this picture himself saying such things as “Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee” (Acts 23:6) where he shows us the depth of his nurturing and indoctrination and then the result of this saying that “I persecuted this way unto the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women. As also the high priest doth bear me witness, and all the estate of the elders: from whom also I received letters unto the brethren, and went to Damascus, to bring them which were there bound unto Jerusalem, for to be punished” (Acts 22:4-5).
This IS the apostle Paul of whom we also read in the story of the Apostle Stephen who IS stoned to death by Jews who believe the same way as DOES Paul. We read of these Jews that “they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit….And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem” (Acts 7:57-59, 8:1). If we can see this ALL through the words of the Master to His disciples saying that “They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service” (John 16:2), we can then better understand that power of indoctrination and how this enhances one’s own vanity while increasing one’s glamour to such levels that one can “think that he doeth God service“.
It IS this same picture that has played out through the centuries as men so firmly believe that their doctrinal view of religion IS right that they intentionally defy the most important aspect of the True teachings of the Master….the teaching of Love, of agape, along with its most essential counterpart, Wisdom. We should see in the Life of Paul the difficult way of the indoctrinated man and try to understand that regardless of what it IS that brings him to the Truth, it would have been easier had he NOT had been “brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers” (Acts 23:3). The report of the events on his way to Damascus need NOT be understood as these ARE presented by both Luke and the apostle, it DOES NOT matter who see and who hears; what matters IS that a strongly religious Jew IS awakened to the Truth that has been spoken of by those whom he persecuted.
Paul realizes the Truth and sees the error of his ways and here we should try to see that while this may have been some time in coming, he needed some added impetus which ever comes through one’s own Soul….one’s own God and Christ Within. And added impetus the apostle DOES receive in the form of a revelation and a realization of the Truth from his own Soul and we should remember that the various accounts of what happened ARE likely tailored to the understanding of those to whom the words ARE spoken and written. We DO NOT KNOW what Truly happened on the road to Damascus and the Truth IS that it DOES NOT matter….it IS only the effect of his encounter that matters. Here again we should understand that this IS NOT a random happening nor IS it God Transcendent picking out Paul who comes to ‘instantly’ believe. We should rather understand that as a Soul this IS Paul’s destiny and one that he likely could have averted if he DOES NOT listen to the prompting of His own Soul and ignores the ‘light’ and the ‘sound’ as so many of us DO each and every day.
For us the lesson IS twofold; first that the greater one’s indoctrination into a doctrinal path, the more difficult IS his ability to walk away and, second, regardless of the difficulty, the prompting DOES NOT cease. This IS the picture that we get of the Apostle Paul and this IS the promise that we have: regardless of where we ARE in the carnal Life, which idea includes ALL religious Life where the singular objective IS NOT agape, we ever have opportunity to Repent, to change our manner of Life as DOES Paul. Paul NO longer sees his doctrinal approach to the Lord; he sees ONLY the Truth of the Master’s words, words which he has NOT heard, and if we follow his teaching we should be able to understand that although he IS ‘sent’ to the gentiles, his words ARE ofttimes directed at his Jewish brothers in an effort the ‘make’ them see what has come to him in revelation and realization of Truth. And Paul’s view of this Truth IS NOT found in the doctrinal interpretations of his words but in such ideas as we have been studying on agape, on the Truth of Love; such ideas as:
“Owe no man any thing, but agapao one another: for he that agapao another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt agape thy neighbour as thyself. Agape worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore agape is the fulfilling of the law. And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed” (Romans 13:8-11).
The doctrines of men however bypass this idea of agape in much the same way as this was bypassed by the Jews’ religious leaders in Jesus’ day, and this despite this being a most central part of the commandments of the Lord. In place of Love both the Christian and the Jew has inserted their various interpretations of the apostle’s words and when this human tendency IS added to the misunderstanding of so many of the KEY Greek words of the New Testament, we find the state of religion as it exists yet today. It IS against the ease of following one’s doctrinal sense that the search for Truth IS lost and this because the Truth requires something from a man and here, if we can understand that the objective of every Soul born into this world IS discipleship, we can see that the Truth requires quite much be taken out of the carnal Life and ways of a man. And the Master tells us this as He gives us the Way of discipleship and as He shows us the Way to His Presence, His Kingdom and that Truth that “shall make you free” which we read again in our trifecta of spiritual reality:
- “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31-32).
- “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).
- “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me” (John 14:21-24).
This picture has ever been painted in the Great Commandment which Moses offers to the Jews in various ways, most clearly in this from Deuteronomy where we read: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart” (Deuteronomy 6:4-6). This message was never incorporated into the Jew’s doctrinal approach to the Lord and while much that follows has been so incorporated, it has Truly lost its meaning and become but ritualistic remedies. The words that follow this original commandment ARE given more attention than ARE the commandment which Jesus presents to us as “Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength“; we should try to see here that it IS the commandment that matters.
Deuteronomy tells us that: “thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates. And it shall be, when the LORD thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not” (Deuteronomy 6:7-10). The sign has become small leather boxes that are worn on the head and on the arm; this tefillin as it IS called IS NOT so much worn to remind one of the commandment but rather to remind one of the latter verse and while the verses may be recited during prayer the meaning of Loving the Lord “with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength” has been lost by the Jew and especially by the Christian who has a most specific Way to express that Love as we read above in the trifecta.
NO doubt the Apostle Paul partook in the ritualistic parts of Judaism in his day and NO doubt he was guilty of most ALL things that the Master rails about regarding the Jews’ religious practices. But in His awakening there IS Repentance and a total change from what he had been and how he had conducted His Life to full compliance with the words of the Master, and while one could presume that the apostle IS graced with this ability to overcome or that this IS the result of his being a dedicated Jew, the reality IS that he IS prepared for this next part of his journey by the spiritual collateral that he has garnered. In the reality that “there is no respect of persons with God” the first two ideas fail and we should try to see here that as part of this idea of “no respect of persons“, there IS equally NO respect of religions.
Paul earned for himself the wherewithal to compensate for the nurturing, indoctrination and experience of his Life and to find the Truth and while we DO NOT KNOW the particulars of how this happens, we ONLY KNOW the brief bible story, we can likely assume that he IS like most men then and today….that his dissatisfaction with the manner of his Life was becoming burdensome. Regardless of how we see the workings of Paul’s conversion, we should try to see it as one that moves him from the indoctrinated man of glamour to the free man of Truth and if we can see him in these less religious terms, we can perhaps then see the reality for everyman as this IS painted for us in the story of his Life. Paul finds his Truth and, if we can read past the misinformation of the translated words and the misinterpretations of the intent of his writing, we can see that this Truth IS Love, it IS agape. We ARE reminded of this through his words on Love, misunderstood words at best, some of which we repeat here and to which we will come back in the next essay as we never did complete our thoughts; we read:
“covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way“. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not agape, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not agape, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not agape, it profiteth me nothing” (1 Corinthians 12:31, 13:1-3).
“Agape suffereth long, and is kind; agape envieth not; agape vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Agape never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8).
These ideas on agape ARE the True crux of the apostle’s teaching which IS ONLY meant to clarify and amplify the Master’s own teaching which, if we were to look at the entirety of His words, ARE in that same regard….agape. He shows us this through mercy, compassion and, most importantly, through His words. We should note here that while Jesus DOES ‘heal‘ ALL who come to Him and ask, this DOES NOT Truly point to the idea that prayer will bring one whatsoever as IS the most common doctrinal assertion. To His ‘healing‘ of those who come to Him as ask we should add the uncounted many that ARE among those of whom we read such things as “great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all” (Matthew 12:15). We must look at the totality of His ‘healing‘ if we ARE to see in Jesus’ works that same idea that “there is no respect of persons with God“.
Understanding this idea “that God is no respecter of persons” (Acts 10:34) IS a KEY part of understanding both the nature of God and the Truth of agape as a Universal Power which IS in every way epitomized by such ideas as “he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45) and Luke’s version which tells us that “he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil” (Luke 6:35). We should try to see and to understand that the objective personality of God IS a human creation which functions to allow for the carnal and finite mind to relate to the One Truth. Once a man can see the True nature of the Godhead, then one can begin to come to KNOW God and here we ARE reminded of the Apostle John’s words that clearly show us how that one can KNOW God “every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love” (1 John 4:7-8).
These words DO clearly tell us that agape IS a critical component of one’s KNOWING God and if we read deeper into John’s words we can see that this IS also a critical part of being “born again” which IS NO different, in most practical terms, than being “born of God“. We should see the agreement here with Jesus own words from our trifecta where we read how that one Truly DOES Love God; the Master tells us that “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me“. The equation here IS answered in the Apostle Paul’s words that equate one’s expression of agape with keeping His words and in the combination of these ideas, the combination of the Master’s words and the clarifying and amplifying words of His apostles, we should be able to see the essential Truth: To KNOW God IS to Love God and to qualify for both a man must keep His words which IS ever accomplished through one’s expression of the Truth of agape as the Master teaches this.
We close today with our understanding of God stated in such a way that the personality of God becomes the personality of ALL who can Truly KNOW God; we read that God IS:
“One Boundless Immutable Principle; one Absolute Reality which, antecedes all manifested conditioned Being. It is beyond the range and reach of any human thought or expression“***
We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.
| Aspect |
Potency |
Aspect of Man |
In Relation to the Great Invocation |
In relation to the Christ |
|
GOD, The Father |
Will or Power |
Spirit or Life |
Center where the Will of God IS KNOWN |
Life |
|
Son, The Christ |
Love and Wisdom |
Soul or Christ Within |
Heart of God |
Truth |
| Holy Spirit |
Light or Activity |
Life Within |
Mind of God |
Way |
Quote of the Day:
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts
- *** A Treatise on Cosmic Fire by Alice A Bailey © 1951 by Lucis Trust
Those who walk on the well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are showing a new road.
Voltaire, Writer and Philosopher
